Hoo, The, Willingdon, Eastbourne, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.                   

A garden of lawned and paved terraces with gazebos, designed in a formal 17th century style in conjunction with the remodelling of the house in 1901-1902, by Sir Edwin Lutyens and with an associated commission by Gertrude Jekyll.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The Hoo stands directly on Church Street in the centre of Old Willingdon village, about 150 metres west of the junction with the A21 running south into the centre of Eastbourne. Its quarter-hectare registered garden lies on the south side, on three level terraces cut into ground which slopes away to the south and which looks out over post-war housing to a glimpse of the sea. The garden is enclosed from adjacent houses to the west and east by high flint walls with tiled copings (Listed Grade II*), the eastern wall being pierced by arched openings to allow a view into the garden from the three late 20th century houses known as The Orchard. A similar wall, some 2.5 metres high but faced with coursed pebbles, forms a curtain wall along Church Street on the north boundary, while to the south the garden is enclosed by a hedge and a section of iron balustrade which run along the top of the 3 metre high wall retaining the grounds of The Court below.

REFERENCES used by English Heritage:

Country Life, 33 (10 May 1913), pp 7-11

L Weaver, Houses and Gardens by E L Lutyens (1913), pp 118-120

A S Butler, Architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens ii, (1950) p 14

I Nairn and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Sussex (1965), p 629

J Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon (1982), pp 122, 166, 178, 186, pls 17, 18

J Darwin, The Architecture, History and Gardens of The Hoo (nd, post 1987) [copy on EH file]

D Ottewill, The Edwardian Garden (1989), pp 71, 75, 222

Maps

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1899

1932 edition

Description written: April 1999

Amended: June 1999

Edited: March 2000